The present invention relates generally to electronic searches and more particularly to systems, software programs, signals, and methods for handling results obtained from electronic searches.
Electronic searches are routinely performed not only by scientists and engineers but also by people with no technical training whatsoever. It is almost as common for a high school student to perform an electronic search to find references for an English paper as it is for a scientist to perform an electronic search to find a specific piece of data within a database. In the current age of VCRs and computer games, it is even common for young children to perform electronic searches, even though the children are not aware that they are doing so.
Two electronic search mechanisms that are in widespread use today are Electronic Program Guides (EPGs) and Internet browsers. EPGs can be found in almost any home that has cable television service. In addition, EPGs are provided as standard equipment on some of the more modern television sets. These EPGs, whether implemented in a television set or a cable box, usually provide basic search and sort capabilities that allow users to obtain program information more quickly and easily than they could using a printed program guide. With the growing popularity of the worldwide web, Internet browsers are also being used more often to perform searches. Many school age children today, especially students in high school, have had some exposure to the Internet and Internet browsers. Internet browsers surpass EPGs in search sophistication by allowing a user to specify advanced search criteria and by searching through more information than is available via standard EPGs.
Both EPGs and Internet browsers, however, lack functionality that is essential for effective management of the information returned by searches. One of the functions lacking, particularly in EPGs, is an ability to retrieve prior search results. In most EPGs, every time a new search is performed, information identified in any previous searches is overwritten. Overwriting the previous search information forces users to perform repeated, sometimes unnecessary, searches for information that they had previously identified. Internet browsers, on the other hand, usually allow users to return to previously visited pages. However, if a user inadvertently exits the sequential forward/back process in these browsers and jumps immediately to a web page in the history list, some previous search results become inaccessible, and just as in the case of EPGs, users may be forced to perform additional searches to find information that they had already identified.
Another function that is frequently lacking in EPGs and Internet browsers is the ability to find content information across a plurality of content information sources and content types. EPGs are generally designed to find broadcast media content, while Internet browsers are designed to find content available on the worldwide web. Due to the nature of their design, most current Internet browsers cannot function efficiently as EPGs, while most EPGs cannot function at all as Internet browsers.
Another characteristic that Internet browsers and EPGs do not possess, and yet is required for a search mechanism to be efficient, is the ability to maintain search results in an organized and easily accessible manner. As mentioned earlier, EPGs generally do not allow users to backtrack and retrieve information from previous searches. Most Internet browsers, however, usually allow users to backtrack to previous information through some form of sequential forward/back navigation mechanism augmented by the ability to jump directly to web sites already visited. Unfortunately, every time a user visits a location, a new entry is created in the browser""s history list regardless of whether the user has previously visited that location or not. The end result is an unorganized history list populated with multiple copies of identical information. The unorganized way in which Internet browsers typically maintain their history lists gives rise to unnecessary confusion on the part of the user and inefficient handling of prior search results.
Therefore, what is needed is a method, system, signal, and software for maintaining search results in an easy-to-use, organized manner. Such an invention would prevent search results from being removed from a history list when subsequent searches were performed, prevent multiple entries into a history list regardless of how many times users access the original information, and provide the ability to search across a plurality of content sources of one or more content types.
Accordingly, the present invention provides a method comprising the actions of maintaining a page index including items corresponding to pages of information, searching for at least one additional page of information from any page of information from the pages of information, updating the page index to include an additional item corresponding to the additional page of information resulting from the searching action, and retaining, in the page index, the items corresponding to the pages of information independent of the searching and updating actions.
In addition, the present invention provides a computer readable medium tangibly embodying a program of instructions configured to maintain a page index including items corresponding to pages of information, search for at least one additional page of information from any page of information from the pages of information, update the page index to include an additional item corresponding to the additional page of information resulting from the search, and retain, in the page index, the items corresponding to the pages of information independent of searching and updating.
In addition, the present invention provides a signal embedded in a propagation medium comprising at least one instruction configured to maintain a page index including items corresponding to pages of information, at least one instruction configured to search for at least one additional page of information from any page of information from the pages of information, at least one instruction configured to update the page index to include an additional item corresponding to the additional page of information resulting from the search, and at least one instruction configured to retain, in the page index, the items corresponding to the pages of information independent of searching and updating.
In addition, the present invention provides a system comprising at least one processor, memory operably associated with the processor, and a program of instructions configured to be executed by the processor and stored in the memory. The program of instructions is configured to maintain a page index including items corresponding to pages of information, search for at least one additional page of information from any page of information from the pages of information, update the page index to include an additional item corresponding to the additional page of information resulting from the search, and at least one instruction configured to retain, in the page index, the items corresponding to the pages of information independent of searching and updating.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a method, system, signal, and software for handling search results that allows users to easily access any search results and perform subsequent searches without destroying previous search results.
An advantage of the present invention is that it supports searches for available content information across a plurality of content information sources of one or more content types.
A further advantage of the present invention is that neither search results pages nor entries in the page index are destroyed as a result of subsequent searches.
Another advantage of the present invention is that no duplicate entries are made in a page index when identical results are returned by searches or when a page is accessed multiple times.